Iran Follows U.S. Precedent

For more than five years the world has heard reports that the United States was torturing suspected terrorists to get false confessions about WMD's, or links to Al Queda, or plots to attack U.S. interests. Most Americans shrugged. Men on the street in Oklahoma have been heard to say, "The government needed to use a firm hand to deal with these people. We have a right to protect our way of life."

Today we are hearing reports that the current regime in Iran is torturing reformists to get confessions that would falsely implicate the U.S. and other western nations in a plot to overthrow the Iranian government. I suspect someone in Tehran is saying, "The government needs to use a firm hand to deal with these people. We have a right to protect our way of life."

Torture appears to have become the standard operating procedure by which those in power deal with anyone they deem threatening. The U.S. has set a rather ignominious precedent for the world. I fear that, sooner or later, Americans themselves will be bearing the brunt of it.